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The Dovekeepers

Hi all, it’s FQ. I know I haven’t been contributing much to our blog (for shame) but wanted to share my review of an upcoming novel, The Dovekeepers (out October 2011) by Alice Hoffman with you. Set in ancient Israel, this utterly compelling story is told through the viewpoints of four incredible Jewish women, all of whom are bound together in a remarkable series of events and fate. Based on a tragic historical event, the Romans’ siege of Masada in 73 AD was one of the most significant events in Jewish history. Nine hundred Jews held out against the Romans for nearly two years on a mountain—about 60 miles from Jerusalem. All but two women and five children were massacred. The novel explores the rich destiny of these four women amidst the destruction of Jerusalem’s Temple, the siege of Masada and the loss of Zion.

I’m not one to gush but The Dovekeepers had me hooked from start to finish. This is my fiction pick for the fall. A colleague, Sherry Lee, who also loved the book, told me, “You are a dovekeeper”. It’s true, and once you finish the book, you’ll understand what she meant by that.

Browsing Bookshelves says, “While I anticpated something fascinating, The Dovekeepers surpassed my wildest expectations through its level of detail and the interweaving of the various characters’ background stories.”

History and Women calls The Dovekeepers “A tale full of mystery and secrets, mothers and daughters, love and hate, and complex human relationships”.

Desktop Retreatsays of the characters in The Dovekeepers, “…they were human and fallible and real and now that I’ve finished the book, I miss them already”.